Planning Stage

My Godiva - how it all started (August 2008)

Previously I had only kept a fish only set-up. After hours of reading the varioius forums and visiting several local fish shops (LFS) I decided this time it was to be a reef aquarium. A brave move but technology and knowledge on reefkeeping had come along in leaps and bounds since my previuos days in the hobby...

After many hours seaching the reef UK forum I discovered the "Godiva" sert-up, distributed by Robin Hopkins at Coventry Aquatics. The system came highly recomended by many memebers of the forum. A telephone conversation with Robin confirmed it was going to be a Godiva for me, the set-up was to be ...

Proposed Set-Up

Godiva 1M x 24 x 24 in Light Oak with DSB sump

Aquaray LED lighting ( 1 duo reef whitw, 1 duo marine white and 1 duo reef blue)

Eheim Compact 3000+

Polario 15 ML (35,000 - 15,000 LPH )

Marea 1000 Powerhead (Low in tank to keep flow over rock )

Instant Ocean Skim 800

TMC Vetron 2 600 Ultra-Violet Steriliser

Vistherm 300 watt heater

Plus the following test kits / measurement devices

Salfert Ammonia , PH, Nitrite and Nitrate

TMC Reflectometer

I am planning to add approximatley 30/40kg of live rock in the display tank - 2kg of live rock rubble in the sump on a DSB - adding some Chaeto later

A Habistat Cool Control + Clip on Fan would be used to try to control the sump temperature A Solaris 18 watt 50/50 lamp will be provided over the DSB to support the Chaeto growth.

Proposed Livestock

Pair Captive Bread Clownfish

Yellow Tang

Regal Tang

Coral Beauty

CUC

Cleaner Shrimp 2

6 x Cortez Large Ceriths
6 x Astrea Turbo snail
6 x Red leg Hermits
12 x Dwarf blue leg

Any comments / sugetions would be most welcome. You can contact me using the following link webmaster

My Godiva, installed and ready to go - excellent service from Robin and the guys at Coventry Aquatics - the tank + cabinet fitted very nicely into the gap...phew what a relief that was ! Very pleased with the build quality ... Time to think about the aquascaping - I will be adding some egg crate as a base for the live rock. I am anticipating that I will require around 40kg. The rock will be added, followed by the sand / water... I hear Robin's advice ringing in my ears " it's a marathon and not a sprint " Don't think he has seen the speed that my RO unit can provide water - no chance of a sprint here !

 

The sump fits very snugly into the bottom of the cabinet - I am planning a skimmer in the right hand section, a DSB in the middle and return pump / phosphate reactor in the left section ... Already it's becoming apparent it may be a tight sqeeze

Plumbing completed, skimmer fitted into the left section and a TMC UV unit fitted onto the right side of the cabinet. Out of view fitted in the top of the cabinet are 6 electrical sockets on each side of the tank.

Top of the weir with the plumming in place...Followed Robin's advice at filled the weir with a couple of litres of RO water, to complete a test for leaks before continuing with the fill... Another addition was to add combs to the top of the weir - failure to do so would result in spending many happy hours trying to remove livestock from the weir. I decided not to cwmwnt any of the pipes, as they were a very good fit. This will make for easy removal for future maintenance.

The live rock was placed on the egg crate - to protect the glass and the RO fill started

With most of the water, the sand and live rock in place I started to run an external filter with some very fine filter wool to remove all the particles from the water. at this stage the sump was not connected and you will see the heater was positioned in the main display tank... really happy with the look at the moment, plenty of nice hiding places for the fish etc.

Reefblog........

Late September 2008 the tank is progressing well and the maturation well under way - no real Ammonia or Nitrite spikes were recorded - possibly a result of the amount of Live Rock that was added to thee sytem ( app 50 kgs ).. I will run a reef blog below with key updates, but please also refer to the poject section - loisted in the left-hand margin.p

September 18th 2008 : Just returned from the STM open-day in Sevenoaks - with a shiny new GHL Aquarium controller..

You can see how I get on seting up the beast, in the project section.